What happens when a Christian pilot breaks his wedding vow for only a single night with a flight attendant. How 8 years later, the tumults of the resulting pregnancy almost tear up a family. Strong emotions, strong forgiveness, good story. ( )

I love to read Karen Kingsbury. This was excellent. A great story - compelling characters, fascinating plot, and brutal in it's honesty of th struggle to forgive in marriage.

Top Christian Fiction author in my opinion. This books tugs at your heartstrings. It is about a soldier's child he fathered while overseas. His wife isn't ready to accept the orphaned child while the child wants desperately to have a family. ( )

October 2006 ( )

Plot Summary: What happens, When & Where, Central Characters, Major Conflicts
Max, a little 7 year old boy, loves his dog Buddy and his mother Kiahna. But his world is shattered when his mother's plane crashes over the ocean and she is killed. However Max has a dad that he knows nothing about--and who knows nothing about him. Conner Evans' life seems about as perfect as it can get at the moment. He has two beautiful girls, a loving and adoring wife, and a job he enjoys as an airline pilot. The only flaw is his estranged relationship with his dad. But then he gets a phone call from a lawyer in Hawaii that rocks his world. His one time, brief affair with a flight attendent resulted in a child--Max--who is now left alone after his mothers death. Her dying wish was that Max spend two weeks with Conner before being placed in a foster home. Conner and his wife Michelle now face the crisis of their lives, having to decide on the fate of their marriage in the light of these revealations--and the fate of a hearbroken boy.
Style Characteristics: Pacing, clarity, structure, narrative devices, etc.
Kingsbury is the master of tugging at the heartstrings with emotionally laden situations. Conner, Michelle, and even Max seem like the people next door in their ordinariness and realistic reactions to these events. Kingsbury also weaves in the element of faith, with Max being a strong believer in God, but Michelle and Conner being somewhat lapsed in their faith. A butterfly metaphor is used to symbolize the second chance at a new life that predicatably occurs by the end of the story.
How Good is it?
Emotionally moving, yet predictable and tied up a little too neatly. ( )